Outdoor deep frying of, for example, turkeys has gained in popularity with the advent of outdoor cooking apparatus such as the “Grand Slam Turkey Fryer”™ of Masterbuilt Mfg. Inc. in Columbus, Ga., USA which includes an outdoor propane burner, large cooking pot (e.g., 30 quarts [or 28.4 liters]) a cooking basket (or other means for manipulating large food items as in a turkey) and a grab handle. A cooking apparatus of this type provides for deep frying large food items with turkeys (e.g., 8 to 18 lbs [3.6 Kg to 8.2 Kg] in weight) being illustrative. However, weather conditions or the lack of a suitable location (e.g., apartment dwellers) can prevent or lessen the desire to use an outdoor cooking apparatus.
Additional prior art outdoor cooking apparatus include seafood steam cookers as well as deep fry steak cookers as illustrated by Masterbuilt's “Sizzlin Steak Rack”™ (U.S. Pat. No. 6,742,446). There is also featured in the prior art cooking apparatus featuring a drain spigot and hanging basket arrangement as seen from Masterbuilt's U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,992 which is incorporated by reference.
As illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,032,175; 2,597,695; 2,785,277 there also exist indoor, home use or domestic electric fryers. These devices are designed for frying small, multiple individual food items in groups as in fries, onion rings, and vegetables, and are generally less susceptible to easy breakdown and cleaning.
With large volume food inserts such as a 14 lb [6.4 Kg] whole turkey or similarly sized food item (e.g., 14±3 lb [6.4 Kg±1.4 Kg], there is required a relatively large volume of cooking fluid for suitable full coverage of the inserted food (e.g., the above noted 30 quart [28.4 liter] outdoor cooking pot). However, there is associated with large volume outdoor cooking apparatus a corresponding long cooking fluid heat up time (and cooling) as well as consumption of a large volume of the cooking fluid. Thus, a reduction in the amount of oil or cooking fluid volume utilized while still providing enough cooking fluid for sufficient food surface contact (e.g., a liquid cooking fluid contact over the entire surface of a submerged food item) is beneficial in providing more rapid heat up and cool down times and is a more efficient and less costly use of cooking fluid whether that is oil, water or some other fluid.